In February 2003, the UK government published its review of the Employment Relations Act 1999. This concluded that there is no case for major changes in the law, but proposed some minor and technical amendments to improve its operation. The outcome of the review represents a major disappointment for trade unions but was welcomed by employers.
On 27 February 2003, the Department of Trade and Industry published a consultation document setting out the conclusions of its review of the operation of the Employment Relations Act 1999 (UK9912145F), focusing in particular on the experience to date of the Act’s trade union recognition procedure (UK0201171F).
The government initiated the review in July 2002 (UK0208101N). The Trades Union Congress (TUC) put forward proposals for a wide range of amendments to the existing legislation (UK0211103N). However, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) argued that changes would be premature and unnecessary.
The review concludes that the Employment Relations Act is working well, and found no evidence to support changing the 'central pillars' of the Act. However, the government says that the review has identified some areas where the legislation is unclear or has left 'loopholes'. The government is therefore proposing some 'fine-tuning' to 'improve the clarity and efficiency' of the law. Among a range of detailed proposed amendments are:
- allowing the distribution of written trade union material to workers covered by recognition claims prior to a ballot;
- enabling the secretary of state to add pensions to the three core topics for collective bargaining under a recognition award (pay, hours and holidays) at a future stage;
- establishing a new legal right for union members to use their union’s services (one of a number of proposed amendments to the law in response to the July 2002 ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Wilson, the National Union of Journalists and others v the United Kingdom- UK0211103N);
- clarifying the law on the right to be accompanied at disciplinary or grievance hearings (UK0010195F) so as to set out the circumstances in which the person accompanying the employee is allowed to address the hearing; and
- removing the requirement (which predates the 1999 Act) for union presidents to be elected by a secret postal ballot of the entire membership, provided they are already elected members of the union executive.
Consultation on the government’s proposals will take place until 22 May 2003. The government plans to come forward with legislation during the current parliament to implement the review’s recommendations.
Commenting on the DTI consultation document, TUC general secretary elect Brendan Barber said: 'While there are some useful advances in this [consultation document] that will make a real difference to people at work, unions will find the rejection of many TUC proposals extremely disappointing.' Mr Barber said that the TUC would be pressing hard during the consultation period for further progress on the TUC’s key objectives. These include:
- the abolition of the exclusion of businesses with fewer than 21 employees from the statutory union recognition procedure;
- the replacement of the requirement that, for recognition to be granted, at least 40% of the workers balloted must actually vote in favour, with a requirement for a simple majority of those voting; and
- indefinite protection against unfair dismissal for workers taking part in lawful industrial action, not only for eight weeks as at present.
However, John Cridland, the CBI’s deputy director-general, commented: 'The unions may huff and puff but most people will see the government’s decision to leave the key provisions of the Act alone as a victory for common sense.'